README file for GAMATCH92

The column headers should be clear but the variable definitions are below (var labels in row 2; row 1 contains a few extra headers to make the office clear).  The data is in comma separated format with periods for missing data and was composed in MS Excel.  Matching the data caught a lot of errors (duplicate or empty precincts) though you still might want to run tests.  In an extremely small number of cases, there were results from a precinct for some elections but not others.

The offices included here are: president, U.S. Senate, Congress, and Public Service Commissioner.  Runoffs were held later for U.S. Senate and PSC and the results are here as well.

Racial data for the split precincts is from the whole precincts so I would consider excluding from analysis for obvious reasons (i.e. the precincts were often split on racial lines for racial redistricting purposes).  The good news is that out of nearly 2500 precincts, only 60 are split.

A.  	SPLIT identifies if a precinct is split between congressional districts.  The racial data is the same for both precincts in the dataset but may not be in reality.  The precincts are doubled in rows only for the congressional race.  The data is recorded as missing for the other elections for the second row.

B.	ST_FIPS has the state FIPS code.

C.	CNTYNAME is the name of the county in abbreviated form.

D.	CTYFIPS is the county FIPS code.

E.	PRECINCT is the precinct name (max 8 characters)

F.  	PRECINCT5 is the precinct name (max 5 characters)

G.  	PREFULNAME  has the full name of the precinct if shortened in column E.

H.  	VTD is the voter tabulation district code (four digit format).

I.  	TOTALREG is the total number of registered.

J.  	BLACKREG is the total number of black registered.

K.  	CODE  -- all are 3 (general election) for all elections in column to right until next code column (column Y).

L - O.	CLINTON, BUSH, MARROU, PEROT have presidential election results

P.  	CONGDIST	has the congressional district number.

Q - R  	CONGDEM, CONGREP record the number of votes for the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates.

S - U  		FOWLER, COVERDELL, HUDSON record the number of votes in the U.S. Senate contest (general election).

V - X  	COLLINS, BAKER, AIKEN	record the number of votes in the race for public service commission (general election).

Y.  		CODE_1 -- all are 4 reflecting that all elections to right are runoff elections.

Z - AA.	FOWLER_1, COVERDELL_1 have the votes in the runoff election for U.S. Senate.	

AB - AC  	COLLINS_1, BAKER_1 have the votes in the runoff election for Public Service Commissioner.